Monday, October 14, 2013

Double header

Our little dilemma the past few months has been deciding how to break the baby news. Long ago we knew that, should we have a kid, we'd wait until after the first trimester. So there we were at week 12, then 13, then 14 and . . . I still didn't feel like anyone really needed to know. But Ryan was about to pop.How about, he said, we get everyone together for a cookout, tell everyone at once, and get it over and done with?I knew he was right, and whatever hesitations I had about announcing were smothered with fantasies of a Pinterest-worthy garden party with table decorations, flowers, lanterns, etc., because I live for things like those. Meanwhile, Ryan had a hankering to use his new stainless steel jet boiler.But then came Tropical Storm Karen who threatened to drown the whole thing out.Still, Craig's wedding was right around the corner, and I was getting pretty tired of fake-drinking. I didn't think I could keep it up through a bachelorette/bachelor party, a rehearsal dinner, and a wedding reception. We had to get the word out.How about, we thought, having the fam over early for breakfast before the weather got bad? And whatever young brave souls wanted to peel shrimp through the storm could come over later for a hurricane party.So we stayed up till 2am Friday night cleaning house (we finally replaced my vacuum cleaner. Hallelujah.) only to wake again at sun-up Saturday morning to start peeling the shrimp, clean the produce, boil the grits, etc.

Luckily, most of our family was flexible enough to switch gears last minute and join us.But I have no pictures of that : ( because I was busy running my mouth and cracking three dozen bantam eggs from my parents' chickens. Three dozen eggs and none leftover.The morning went sweetly. But just as soon as the breakfast hurrah was put away and the dishes done, we were at it again for the shrimp boil which involved prepping 10 lbs of potatoes, 8 lbs of shrimp, 12 ears of corn, 8 lemons, 5 lbs of sausage, 4 onions, a pitcher of Bloody Marys, and copious amounts of Old Bay. It was a learning experience, but a tasty one at that.

Miss Reliable--I mean my sister in law Meredith--after washing all our breakfast plates, managed to go home and make this Southern Living-worthy coconut cream pie and slutty brownies. I swear this pie belonged on the cover of a magazine and tasted equally phenomenal. (May I note that Meredith also makes a killer key lime pie, and she doesn't even like key lime pie. She's just awesome like that.)

And lo and behold, Karen fizzled out. We got some rain on Sunday. That was all.